What's this? Mecharic actually kept a promise? Have the end times truly come?! But yeah - I said Friday, it's Friday, here's your update.
Ruby was an Augmented individual, meaning much of her being was robotically enhanced. The enhancements were many – better motor controls, superior sensory inputs, far superior processing power (she so did love her six Gen200 Quantum Core Processors) – and useful. She could operate within a micrometer of error, she could perceive ultraviolet light and very limited infrared wavelengths, she could lift far more than her small frame would imply, and if worst came to worst she could survive without the biological aspects of her existence… though it was debatable if that was truly alive or not. However, being a marvel of technological progress did have its downsides. Besides not being able to swim properly – something she would never have worried about if not for being stranded on a planet that was entirely ocean – there were also some things that had been beneficial but suddenly weren't.
Like being able to perceive in ultra-slow motion the quantum detonation taking place in front of her, her eyes having such a massive resolution that she could see the initial cracks and bulges of the Beacon's hull before the explosion even had a chance to go supercritical. Like being able to predict how the vast ship would fail and where the shards of rubble would land. Like being able to perceive in slow motion the way everyone's eyes dimmed and their faces turned to panic. Like being able to see a certain security guard and friendly blonde both making the choice to move towards the ship despite knowing it was far too late.
Ruby's six processors all came the same conclusion at the same time, and she lunged forward and grabbed both with a hand each, launching from her perch on the top of the lifepod. She knew her weight would prevent them from getting too close to the explosion for them to avoid the shrapnel inbound. It was simple numbers, crunched and recrunched a dozen times before the explosion even became visible to the human eye. The two weren't happy with her for saving them, but Ruby was prepared for that. She just needed them to stay within a twenty foot radius of the lifepod – it was by luck or divine intervention unlikely to be struck by the debris.
Even as the two realized they had been snagged, the rest of the group managed to catch up with reality and moved forward as well, grabbing them and pulling Nora and Jaune away from the ship and into safety closer to the pod. Ruby sank like a rock for a moment before activating what amounted to internal airbags to minimize impact damage, but which could be abused to grant her the ability to float despite her weight. Reaching the surface again, she turned to face the Beacon as the explosion reached it's tail end. As she watched the fireball rise up into the sky, Ruby frowned as she noticed a strange distortion at sea level. Focusing on this, her eyes widened and a shot a fear ran through her – despite her machine mind, she had forgotten a side effect of explosions in water: waves.
"TSUNAMI INBOUND, DIVE EVERYONE DIVE!"
"TSUNAMI INBOUND, DIVE EVERYONE DIVE!"
Today just could not stop getting worse could it? Despite this, Dove didn't question the cyborg as she suddenly began to sink into the ocean, and dived down after her. He couldn't see it yet, but that didn't mean it wasn't coming! Seeing the others diving down with him, Dove knew he'd made the correct choice – and knew it even more when a concussive wave of force tore across the surface with no small degree of force. It even managed to tilt the entire lifepod over nearly on its side before the pod's gravity anchor locked it back into place. Noticing rapid movement near him, Dove turned and let out a strangled gasp as he saw Nora attacking the robogirl who's name he'd just managed to forget.
Thankfully for Ruby – that was her name! – Dove wasn't the only one who saw it happening, and Yang stepped in and stopped the violence before it could end in anything more than shaken hearts and some minor injuries. As Yang moved to yank Nora towards the surface – likely for a lecture or scolding – Ruby grabbed Yang's leg and shook her head, pointing up and towards the ship. The cyborg then moved herself closer to a large outcropping of rock and promptly got herself a solid grip. Trusting her hadn't led him wrong yet, so Dove followed suit. A few minutes later the tsunami passed overhead, completely submerging the lifepod and sending a powerful surge of force through the shallows they were in. Small fish were swept away with the surge, then swept back as the ocean settled, and Dove whimpered as he heard the sound of several of those terrifying exploding fish waking up and then doing as they seemed to be meant to – exploding that is – before the water settled down fully. Sandy, murky, and probably full of monsters.
Joy.
Yang was furious – not only with Nora for attacking their most important member, but also with herself for not realizing that an explosion of such magnitude would result in a tsunami. Granted, she had never been on a waterworld before and had never seen a ship explode like that before, but still! It was just basic physics. Regardless, they had survived, in no small part thanks to their resident cyborg, and now Yang could give Nora the scolding she deserved.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT?!"
"I-"
"YOU TRIED TO MURDER SOMEONE!"
"Look-"
"SHE LITERALLY SAVED ALL OUR WORTHLESS SKINS AND YOU TRIED TO KILL HER!"
"SHE KEPT ME FROM SAVING RENNY!"
"NO SHE DAMN WELL DIDN'T SHE SAVED YOU FROM THAT HEAP OF RUBBLE!"
The heap of rubble Yang was referring to was not, in fact, the Beacon – or even it's still-smoldering remains as they burned away. No, this rubble was a large chunk of the hull and some external storage units (for when people needed items but were on a spacewalk) that had at some point landed within twenty feet of the lifepod. It had landed right where Nora and Jaune would most likely have been at the time of its landing – or so Yang assumed, since Ruby had worked so hard to keep them all in place. The entire piece of wreckage was still superheated, the edges cherry-red and bubbles rising from them as they boiled the water.
"But-"
"NO BUTS! Ruby saw the tsunami, she saw the debris falling, she almost definitely knew what was going to happen! Even if she didn't, she at least realized that by the time we got that message there was no saving anyone onboard! What could you have even done in a three seconds between the warning and the explosion anyway?!"
"I… I… I don't know. But at least I could have tried!"
"You would have died."
All heads turned to Jaune, who was rubbing his face as he tried to contain his grief long enough for this to be settled. Frankly both he and Nora looked like complete and utter messes, and considering who they definitely lost in that explosion… well, Yang didn't blame them. The other members of their group were huddled around the lifepod – Yang gave a silent thanks to whoever invented gravity anchors – and were decidedly not getting involved. Cowards.
"Ja-"
"We would have died. We wouldn't have saved them. They… we… it was too late. You know this is true."
"How can you be so callus?!"
"I'm not. I'm being realistic. Your Ren and my… my Pyrrha are both dead. They were dead the moment that alert came through. All we can do now is live – for them. They wouldn't want us to follow them any time soon."
Yang nodded approvingly and turned back to Nora.
"He's right. This isn't my first op to go wrong, and I doubt it's yours either. Granted… never gone THIS wrong before, but the point stands. We gotta live. And that means we need our little Augie. She's probably key to getting into what's left of the Beacon and finding other wreckage sites."
At this, Weiss decided to speak up. After all, the hard and scary part was over.
"Why do you think that?"
"She predicted that chunk of rubble landing where it did – or near enough – so it makes sense that she would also have an idea as to where the rest landed. We can salvage materials from them while the main wreck cools off and finishes collapsing, and then we can see if there's enough inside to salvage anything of this situation."
"That… makes sense. I will admit, the book no longer applies. I think it stopped applying somewhere between the giant tadpoles with fangs and those giant leech things."
"Speaking of our resident Augie, where did she go anyway?"
The entire group went silent for a moment before realizing their most important member was missing, and likely had been for a while. Diving down they found one of the two powerglides missing as well.
"Oh for the love of… great. Now we need to find her. Any ideas?"
"I can set my PDA to track hers, being her boss and all. But I'm not capable of going after her – I don't have the strength or skill to pull that off."
"I can go after her."
"You're probably the reason she left, honestly."
"I know. But Yang is needed here – someone needs to keep the rest of them alive – and I can convince Ruby to come back to base. I doubt you could, since you didn't scare her away."
"I… I guess that's true. Very well. You can go out after her, I'll handle survival here. However, as you can tell the sun is setting… And I don't want to risk it in the dark. You're definitely good, but not that good. The Augie will just have to survive 'till tomorrow."
"But-"
"No. Buts. We can't afford to lose two of us tonight."
"Ruby will be fine. She's Augmented, you know."
"What does-"
"She can see in the dark, won't get tired as easily, and can go without food or water for longer than we can. Her greatest threat is the wildlife, and even then her physical body is sturdy – she can hold her own. She'll be fine."
"I… if you say so. I don't like the idea of me being responsible for someone else's death though."
"Well I don't like the idea of losing our most important member, all things considered, so nobodies happy. Yay."
And on that depressing note to end a miserable day, the group began to rotate sleeping. None of them would get as much as they should, and two of them would cry themselves to sleep that night, the grief of loss seeping past the need to survive as adrenalin and fear faded down into despair.
AN: Sorry for shorter chapter, but I am going to be cutting them a bit sooner than I used to. I'm basically going to end a chapter when I see fit, rather than aiming for a wordcount like I used to. Granted, I still want to hit 2k a chapter, but this chapter has around 1.7k words in the chapter and I'm fine with it.
Anyway, read, review, follow, fav, whatever you wanna do.
And to the guy who's worried this'll be a snuff fic - don't worry. It's not a snuff fiction. The Beacon is a stand-in for the Aurora, not the Degasi. That's a whole 'nother mess entirely.
